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  • 11/21/23: Uncle Sam Wants $4B From Binance 🏛️🚀📱

11/21/23: Uncle Sam Wants $4B From Binance 🏛️🚀📱

Author

Valko
November 21, 2023

Top News

  • 🏛️ US Justice Dept. seeks $4B from Binance to end criminal case

  • 🚀 Blast, Blur’s new L2, attracts over $42M TVL in under 24 hours

  • 📱 Venmo & Cash App users sue Apple for blocking crypto payments

US Justice Department seeks $4 billion from Binance to end criminal case: Bloomberg

DOJ is seeking more than $4 billion from Binance as part of a deal that would end an ongoing criminal investigation, Bloomberg News reported.

⌐◪-◪ → If you’ve been reading Specs, then you know that Binance has been facing legal troubles. Now, the DOJ wants Binance to pay $4B to drop the case. Some experts think this is bullish, while others are confused - given the fact that CZ may still face criminal charges. I don’t know if I should view this as extortion by the Government or bribery by Binance. Feels bad either way.

New Ethereum Layer 2 Blast Attracts $30M Hours After Bridge Goes Live

Blast boasts prominent investors Paradigm and "eGirl Capital" members among others, but there’s no way to withdraw funds until February.

⌐◪-◪ → Blast came out of nowhere and is already dominating the market’s attention. Nansen data shows nearly $50M in TVL in under 24 hours, which is insane. Personally, I’m not sure what to think. Some are calling it a Ponzi or a glorified multisig/hedge fund, while othes like Spoopy Tropples, Foobar, and Hasu (who backed the project) are singing its praises. I’ll be doing some homework on the model later today.

Venmo, Cash App users sue Apple over peer-to-peer payment fees

Apple Inc has been sued by Venmo and Cash App customers in a proposed class action claiming the iPhone maker abused its market power to curb competition for mobile peer-to-peer payments, causing consumers to pay "rapidly inflating prices."

⌐◪-◪ → Looks like Apple is being accused of using its position to force Venmo and Cash App to exclude crypto. The P2P payments space is dominated by three players: Apple, PayPal, and Block (formerly square). 1 player restricting the other 2 from using crypto is not only a big deal, but its exactly the sort of “gatekeeping” that crypto was built to destroy. I love Apple, but this is not a good look.

Peripheral Vision

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • Crypto Youtubers see a spike in traffic and viewership

  • Binance loses institutional exec as exits persist amid investigations

  • Celsius to become mining-only NewCo after bankruptcy plan feedback

  • SolanaFM team to launch new, simpler, Solana blockchain explorer

  • Polymarket users give Sam Altman a 55% chance of returning as CEO

  • Luxor starts business to make shipping bitcoin mining rigs faster

  • Backpack crypto exchange airdrops $77M PYTH to its users

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

  • Kraken accused by SEC of operating unregistered broker-dealer

  • Jesse Powell, Kraken CEO & co-founder, calls out SEC on “extortion”

  • Kraken says products remain unaffected amid SEC’s disastrous lawsuit

  • DOJ forces Tether to freeze $225M linked to human trafficking

  • Aragon DAO token holders voted to sue the founding team

🌎 Rest of the World

  • Tether’s $1B deposit with UK Financial is in the middle of a court battle

  • Canadian regulators seek feedback on bank crypto disclosure rules

  • Bittrex Global to shut down several months after US bankruptcy

  • Crypto miner Phoenix Group’s ADX IPO was 33x oversubscribed

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

  • Nike drops new RTFK sneakers that come with NFTs

  • NFT Marketplace, Blur, launches Ethereum L2 with “native yield”

  • Big Time raises $2M in 5-minutes by selling 6,000 mystery boxes

  • Tamagotchi-like Fren Pet is crushing it on Coinbase’s Base Network

  • Nouns floor at 69 ETH, nearly 1.8x rage quit/fork payout

  • Wolf Game announces The Sheperd’s Cup, a contest for $WOOL